[space-eel]

Iv'e been doing some research for a personal project and iv'e hit a roadblock.
what i would like to know is; what is the chemical composition of a mixture of sulfuric acid and water?

after doing some research iv'e gotten two different answers.
One is that simply a dilution of sulfuric acid will be made.
The other is that adding water to acid will force an ionization where H₂O will steal the hydrogen from the H₂(SO₄) making H₃O⁺ and H(SO₄)^-. The H(SO₄)^- will react with more H₂O to create another H₃O⁺ and (SO₄)^(2-) (Sulfate).

Balanced:

H₂(SO₄)_(L) + 2(H₂O)_(L)  2(H₃O⁺)_(L) + SO₄^(2-)_(S)


If this reaction is correct then, there should be a precipitate of Sulfate, though when watching videos of this mixture i see no solids formed. Where am i getting this wrong?
Thanks.

[Borek]

Why do you think there should be a precipitate? Just because you call something "sulfate" doesn't make it insoluble.

Yes, the acid dissociates, yes, the solution contains all the ions you have listed. These are equilibrium processes and there are methods of calculating extent of these reactions.

[space-eel]

ahhh ok, so sulfate is not insoluble. So, if i wanted to extract the sulfate i could filter it out? awesome.
ill have to do a little research on equilibrium processes, thank you.

[Borek]

So, if i wanted to extract the sulfate i could filter it out?

You can filter out solids, you can't filter out ions.